Citizens and entrepreneurs fight over BBMP’s mistake

CITIZEN MATTERS
Bangalore’s own interactive newsmagazine
Speak up, it’s your city!
March 13th 2015

Dear ,

Greetings from Citizen Matters!

As you already know, our fund-raising campaign is in progress. The campaign ends on March 31st, and all donations are exempt from tax under 80G.

Thank much to those who contributed when we reached out to you on a few days ago. If you have not donated yet, please contribute now towards responsible journalism: Click here to donate.

Before we get into regular stories, here is a quick look at what happened in the city over the last few days.

• • Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has announced 25 skywalks in his budget for 2015-16, while the city’s existing skywalks are not being used as they should.
  • Bengaluru gets Rs 2900 crore in the budget.
  • Another takeaway from the budget is the announcement of online real-time monitoring of ultrasound scanning machines, to stop female foeticide.
  • Even as the uproar about the documentary India’s Daughter is yet to die down, a policeman from Madurai and his teacher wife were spotted in a road in Bengaluru, beating their daughter black and blue.
  • Bengaluru gets its own Cyber Forensic Laboratory, for which Hyderabad was the go-to place so far.
  • Yet another person died in a private hospital, after being admitted for swine flu. His relatives ransack the hospital.
  • State government has announced that learning Kannada as a language will be made compulsory in schools.

Story of the week

Citizens and entrepreneurs fight over BBMP’s mistake

Even when there is a High Court order and clear guidelines on permission for commercial activities in residential zones in the city, BBMP continues to violate them by granting permissions illegally. Result? War of words between entrepreneurs and residents.

Read: Koramangala eatery case: citizens cry harassment by BBMP

This how Bengaluru is governed

One committee conducts meetings seeking people’s opinion on restructuring BBMP, while another silently probes irregularities in BBMP. What will be the outcome?

Read: Will Kataria Committee report help govt to dissolve BBMP council?

If the BBMP has no money and pourakarmikas are mixing the garbage segregated by residents, what’s the point of advocating segregation at source?

Read: Vicious circle of BBMP’s fund crunch and garbage dumps

Having their say

‘India’s Daughter’ may have been banned, but does the debate around the BBC documentary create an opportunity for us to think about how we can make the future safe for our children? Read: Nirbhaya documentary debate: An opportunity to re-define our future

It started with the shopkeepers; now even toll collectors give you change in the form of boiled sweets or toffees. Read: Is candy a form of Indian currency?

Do you remember the strains of Venkateshwara Suprabhatam in MSL’s voice every morning? Reminiscences of old Bengaluru, National High School and more. Read: Sri Venkateshwara Suprabhatam and love affair with Sanskrit!

Yes, ‘It’s Our Turn to Lead.’ That’s also international slogan to mark the 45th anniversary of Earth Day on April 22, 2015. Find out more about the Earth Day Competition.

Check what’s up in Bengaluru this weekend, in our events section.

Help us serve you better with more stories!

Here’s how you can interact with your fellow citizens and our editorial team.

• • Send us your articles! We run both citizen journalism and professionally authored stories, commentary and posts.
  • Send us a lead or alert.
  • Start a discussion.
  • Connect with us: Facebook | Twitter | Google+ | YouTube
  • To contribute to Oorvani Foundation, click here.
  • You can also submit your feedback at any page on the Citizen Matters website using the blue colour tab at the far right.

Have a happy weekend!

Until next week,

Shree D N

 Subscribe to this newsletter